Sorry if this was previously posted.....could not find in "Topic Search".

Singapore Airlines has designated flight # 322 (SIN to LHR) and # 317 (LHR to SIN) for their A380 start-up to London Heathrow, but did not provide exact date when service is to begin. SQ indicated that service could not commence until both 9V-SKB, and 9V-SKC are delivered and flights should commence before end of March 2008.

Quoting Vincewy (Reply 1):Out of curiosity, with the amount of time sitting at SIN, would they be able to make a regional flight such as SIN-HKG during those day hours, I think the LHR sector takes a little more than 13 hours

Sitting at SIN? It would most likely not be the same aircraft that arrive in SIN at the morning that returns to LHR in the evening. Remember the first 3 aircrafts will be flying SIN-LHR-SIN-SYD-SIN

Quoting Ikramerica (Reply 5):Yes it would. No matter how you slice it, the first 3 A380s will be "resting" in SIN a cumulative 20+ hours a day. That's some light fleet utilization. To start out.

Do you mean compared to the time of:

BA 747's accumulate in JFK every dayQF 747's sitting in LHR 12 hours every dayUA 747's in SFO every night
SAA in LHR every dayBA 747 in SYD every day

No different to any other long haul aircraft utilisation.

at the end of the day.. if you run it 20 hours a day and it goes tech.. that delay with only 3 aircraft will never shrink without needing a standby or a cx.. and if you dont have one big enough... you dont have one...

why risk revenue and credibilty for a couple of hours of "fun" when anything else will do the same job.

Currently the A380 is cheaper than a 747, carries 100 pax more and high in the PR stakes for the airline.

Quoting StarGoldLHR (Reply 6):BA 747's accumulate in JFK every dayQF 747's sitting in LHR 12 hours every dayUA 747's in SFO every night
SAA in LHR every dayBA 747 in SYD every day

I'm only talking about the time they sit in SIN. They are basically sitting in SIN for 7-8 hours a day after flying 1.5 legs in the day.

You also need to add in 4 hours in LHR and 2 in SYD, and you are basically using 3 A380s for this route, but only an average of 14 hours of block time a day.

It's low, but obviously there are reasons some airlines have to do it, but not generally at their hubs. It's one thing if a route requires you to sit a plane at a destination, quite another if it sits at your hub/base.

For UA at SFO or QF at LAX, they cycle planes through there for maintenance, but they don't have their entire fleet of 747s there daily.

I'm not saying SQ is wrong for doing this. They want to have 100% reliability, with on time flights and perfect aircraft. i think that's a good idea. but it doesn't change the fact the utilization is low.

Quoting Ikramerica (Reply 7):It's low, but obviously there are reasons some airlines have to do it, but not generally at their hubs. It's one thing if a route requires you to sit a plane at a destination, quite another if it sits at your hub/base.

They probably does it to make their schedule fit. Remember, you usually need more than 3 aircrafts for an efficient operation and as more 380 comes in the the fleet this will change as it then will be put on more routes. SYD-SIN-LHR return requires around 2,5 aircraft which means SQ will have 0.5 aircraft "too much" after taken their 3rd delivery

Quoting 747Dreamlifter (Thread starter):Singapore Airlines has designated flight # 322 (SIN to LHR) and # 317 (LHR to SIN) for their A380 start-up to London Heathrow, but did not provide exact date when service is to begin.

I thought it's been known for at least 1 year it will be 317/322. Why is it suddenly a topic worthy of its own thread!?

BA 747's accumulate in JFK every dayQF 747's sitting in LHR 12 hours every dayUA 747's in SFO every night
SAA in LHR every dayBA 747 in SYD every day

No different to any other long haul aircraft utilisation.

at the end of the day.. if you run it 20 hours a day and it goes tech.. that delay with only 3 aircraft will never shrink without needing a standby or a cx.. and if you dont have one big enough... you dont have one...

Nothing to do with worrying about whether an aircraft goes tech. All of these long haul layovers are due to slots and time zones which all constrain when you can run the flight.
The SQ aircraft will sit at LHR for a few hours in the morning as if it turned round and left LHR at 0800 it would arrive in SIN in the middle of the night.
The SQ317 arrival could probably be turned round to become the SQ320 in SIN but at the moment they don;t have enough aircraft to be able to sustain a daily A380 service on more that one flight.
Utilisation is generally lower until an airline can get more aircraft to service more routes regularly. I am sure it was a similar story with the 744.

Quoting Vincewy (Reply 1):Out of curiosity, with the amount of time sitting at SIN, would they be able to make a regional flight such as SIN-HKG during those day hours, I think the LHR sector takes a little more than 13 hours.

Aircraft need service. Generally airlines do an A-check every 25 hours flying time. This can take an hour or so, but still has to be scheduled with maintenance. It is not usually done while sitting at the gate during daylight hours.

In addition, airplanes flying intercontinental are more carefully maintained. If an oven or other passenger convenience goes out on a domestic US flight, they will just write it up and let it be fixed on the next scheduled maintenance. On long intercontinental flights, airlines prefer that everything works on the airplane.

Quoting 747Dreamlifter (Thread starter):SQ indicated that service could not commence until both 9V-SKB, and 9V-SKC are delivered and flights should commence before end of March 2008.

Quoting JoeCattoli (Reply 4):What do you think they'll do with 9V-SKB until 9V-SKC arrives?

Quoting Ikramerica (Reply 5):I wonder if they will send the second A380 on SIN-SYD-SIN as a sub for the first few days until the third A380 arrives?

Quoting Pellegrine (Reply 11):Airbus will park it. It will be delivered as close as possible with SKC, similar to what Boeing does at Seattle.

I thought SKB is supposed to be delivered to SQ at the beginning of January. If SKC isn't being delivered until March, that is a lot of money to park for 2-3 months. Why wouldn't they use it temporarily on a shorter run, like NRT-SIN? If SYD can be done with one, so can NRT.

Quoting United787 (Reply 17):I thought SKB is supposed to be delivered to SQ at the beginning of January. If SKC isn't being delivered until March, that is a lot of money to park for 2-3 months. Why wouldn't they use it temporarily on a shorter run, like NRT-SIN? If SYD can be done with one, so can NRT.

SIN-SYD 3,395 nm SIN-NRT 2,889 nm

GOOD THOUGHT....United787

I think they might even do it as a familiarization run to NRT. But very doubtful they would put it up for revenue only to pull it off when SKC arrives.....Completing the "Kangaroo Route" is far more valuable for SQ. Japan was next on the agenda after the LHR route is well in place.

9V-SKD should be arriving in April, and SKE before year end. Now this could change if Airbus can speed-up production and delivery beyond what's promised.

Quoting Eghansen (Reply 16):Aircraft need service. Generally airlines do an A-check every 25 hours flying time. This can take an hour or so, but still has to be scheduled with maintenance. It is not usually done while sitting at the gate during daylight hours.

This would be a daily check in some airlines terminology, and can be done at the gate, most airlines I know do this sort of check on the gate, unless there is something specific where they have to drag it to the hanger.

Quoting Theginge (Reply 13):Quoting StarGoldLHR (Reply 6):
Do you mean compared to the time of:

QF 747's sitting in LHR 12 hours every day

No different to any other long haul aircraft utilisation. At the end of the day.. if you run it 20 hours a day and it goes tech.. that delay with only 3 aircraft will never shrink without needing a standby or a cx.. and if you dont have one big enough... you dont have one...

Nothing to do with worrying about whether an aircraft goes tech. All of these long haul layovers are due to slots and time zones which all constrain when you can run the flight.

QF's 4 daily 744s to LHR average about 9 hours on the ground at LHR. One of them is there over 15 hours.